Escalation Predictor

The problem

Formal escalations are the most expensive failure mode in customer service. They consume director time, trigger executive emails, blow up CSAT, and almost always could have been prevented with a senior agent two replies earlier. The signals are observable: ticket sentiment trending negative, customer ARR above threshold, prior escalation history, FRT slipping past SLA, the wrong tag combinations (e.g. billing + bug + outage), agent reply count climbing without resolution. An escalation predictor scores each open ticket on this risk surface, routes the top-decile preventatively to a senior agent or duty manager, and attaches a draft acknowledgment + ownership change so the senior reply lands inside the SLA window.